Research and Markets: The Essential Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC) Competitor Analysis is Now Available

DUBLIN--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/868fe4/competitor_analysi) has
announced the addition of the "Competitor Analysis: Antibody-Drug Conjugates
(ADC)" report to their offering.

The present Competitive Intelligence Report about Antibody-Drug Conjugates
(ADC)/Immunoconjugates provides a competitor evaluation in the field of tumor
targeting antibodies conjugated with a drug payload for treatment of cancer as
of June 2009.

The newer generations of antibodies are characterized by having increased
effector functions. This can be achieved either by engineering the antibody
itself to optimize Fc effector functions such as ADCC and CDC, or adding payload
functions to the antibody by incorporating a second targeting specificity to
recruit immune effector cells or fusing it with toxins or cytokines. A more
mature and advanced technology is conjugating the antibody with a cytotoxic drug
moiety. The basic principle of antibody-drug conjugates is to use the antibody
moiety for targeting the tumor and for tumor-specific delivery of a cytotoxic
agent. One such antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) is already commercially available
while other earlier projects were hampered by a small therapeutic window, mainly
due to systemic toxicity caused by the premature release of the cytotoxic drug
from an instable linker between antibody and drug.

The most advanced technologies today offer stable linker technology and
cytotoxic prodrugs which only become effective once the conjugate has entered
the tumor cell by endocytosis and the drug cleared by proteolytic digestion from
the conjugate inside the cell. A high tumor specific expression of the target is
a prerequisite for lowering the systemic side effects of the ADC. The
therapeutic window further can be improved if the cytotoxic agent is a prodrug
only activated by intracellular enzymes. Further advances have been made by
selecting cytotoxic drugs without drug resistance, by using peptide linkers
instead of chemical moieties and by

At present, two further antibody-drug conjugates are in pivotal clinical studies
and at least four different ADC molecules in phase II clinical evaluation. The
early stage clinical pipeline consists of at least seven different phase I ADCs
and further six in IND enabling studies. The preclinical pipeline is rather full
by more than 9 ADCs in advanced preclinical phase and many more in earlier
stages.

The report includes a compilation of current active projects in research and
development of antibody-drug conjugates and other immunoconjugates in oncology.
In addition, the report lists company-specific R&D pipelines of antibody-drug
conjugates. Competitor projects are listed in a tabular format providing
information on:

* Drug Codes
* Target/Mechanism of Action
* Class of Compound
* Company
* Product Category
* Indication
* R&D Stage
* additional comments with a hyperlink leading to the source of information

Key Topics Covered:

* Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC)
* Other Immunoconjugates in Oncology
* Corporate Antibody-Drug Conjugate R&D Pipelines

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/868fe4/competitor_analysi

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
press@researchandmarkets.com
Fax (USA): 646-607-1907
Fax (International): +353-1-481-1716

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